MMO Weekly 20/01

Hello, friends and neighbors, and welcome to the latest edition of MMO Weekly!  In this week's column, we cover the very latest (well, maybe) and greatest (not really) stories in all of MMO gaming.  Or, we'll just sniff around in the dark corners of virtual space until we find the weirdest, strangest, and funniest stories we can dig up.  So without further ado, on to the news!

Let's start with the story of the Mysterious Package from Mythic.  Warhammer bloggers Keen and Graev received a very strange set of objects, all courtesy of Mythic Entertainment.  What did the package contain?  A set of hair clippers, a package of reddish hair dye, and a note that rather cryptically reads, “More to come, 1-29-08”. 

What could this mean?  Well, Keen and Graev did a little investigating, and came up some interesting facts.  The ol' tabletop version of Warhammer has a class called the Dwarf Slayer, and it's a DPS melee class.  Out of shame, they shave their heads into Mohawks, and then dye the spikes orange.  Upon closer inspection, the hair dye was somewhat orange-ish.  Could this be what Mythic is hinting at?

It's certainly an intriguing possibility.  Considering that Mythic has never indicated that the Slayer would be introduced into the game, this could be considered  an unexpected development.  Recall, however, that two DPS classes were eliminated from the game prior to launch.  They were the Orc Choppa and the Dwarf Hammerer.  Mythic boss Mark Jacobs indicated that they simply weren't ready, and would be introduced (for free) at some point down the road.  Also remember that Mythic has earned, above any other company in gaming, a reputation for keeping its promises. 

Of course, the rub is that Dwarf Hammerers don't shave their heads and dye the spikes orange.  The Hammerers and the Slayers are distinctly different, and the Hammerers don't fit the clues.  

While researching this story, I uncovered a second, tantalizing morsel.  I stumbled across an interview – a minor story from several months back - in which Jacobs mentioned, in an offhanded way, that one of the two eliminated classes actually would not be re-introduced later as promised.  Either the Choppa or the Hammerer was to be completely scrapped.  Instead, it would be replaced by something (presumably) different and more fun.

Several of my fellow editors and I threw all this into our magic cauldron of prognostication, stirred the pot really well, and....we're putting all our money on the Dwarf Slayer prediction.  Keen and Graev, it seems to us, are probably dead-on, and we're going to see the Choppa and Slayer introduced to Warhammer fans worldwide come the 29th of this month.  Huzzah! 

If you haven't yet done so, take a trip down memory lane with Littleton.  Our good friends over at Gamebunny have embarked on a surprisingly interesting journey:  leveling a new character (Littleton the Hunter) from 1 to 80, unassisted. 

The way the game is structured now, with hero classes that start at level 55, guild-mates power-leveling one another, and the free levels granted by the Recruit-a-Friend system, this grind is almost unheard of in the modern game.  Littleton brings back such memories as running the Wailing Caverns, getting the occasional random blue drop, and pugging with newbs.  It's a great set of articles (he's on episode #8 now), he has a fresh view of the game, and a very enjoyable read-through.

Adam Martin over at T-Machine has an insider's look at why Tabula Rasa has died.  His reasons are varied, but each is interesting.  He further extrapolates his findings to other games that are dead, or near death.  Interestingly, many of them suffer from the same exact difficulties.  Adam's article is long, and full of in-depth information, so it's not for the faint of heart, but offers insights found nowhere else. 

Oh, wait, strike that.  Some related insights can be found over at Scott Jennings' blog, and he's also an insider from NC Soft.  Both Adam and Scott agree on a lot.  Maybe, just maybe, the industry will listen this time.  (Or maybe not, and just continue to repeat these mistakes again and again).

And now for something completely different (with apologies to a certain Monty Python...):

Frodo, Don't Wear the Ring:  a musical interlude.  

It's Paul Barnett's 23rd birthday!  Well, ok, maybe not his 23rd, but he's still the only creative director of a major MMO that combines straightforward honesty with utter lunacy every single day.  He blogs (well, it's actually a video) about the latest happenings inside Warhammer here.

Khan is dead.  Ricardo Montalban, known the geeks worldwide as the epic Star Trek villain Khan Noonian Singh, passed away at age 88. 

Apparently, Mattel Toys is developing an MMO based on Kool-Aid.  I kid you not. 

The Robot is dead.  Actor Bob May, who played The Robot on the camp classic sci-fi series Lost in Space, has passed away.  Several sources tell the press that the talented actor got the role largely because he fit inside the suit.  

Ever wonder what tech support was like in the Middle Ages?  Finally, we have an answer to that burning question.

If you're a player of Fiesta, and you've wanted to date one of the GMs, now's your chance.  Developer Outspark is hosting a contest, and the two winners will get to date the GM of their dreams.  Ah, romance...

Cryptic is celebrating the launch of their famed MMO City of Heroes on the Mac with some video foolishness.  Check out “I'm a Hero, I'm a Villain” right here.  

Finally, would you like to insure your ability to play WoW?  These guys are offering insurance, so you'll be duly compensated if the servers go down or get too crowded.  Is it a scam, or are they offering to step up where Blizzard fails?  You be the judge.

And that's all, folks.  If you'd like to keep up on day-to-day events in the various virtual universes, stop by and visit us over at WanderingGoblin.com; we have our finger on the pulse of all the latest virtual goofiness.  And, of course, we'll be back next week right here with more MMO-related nonsense, shenanigans, horseplay, and utter tomfoolery.   Until then, ciao!

Jeff is now the proud father of a baby boy.  We'd just like to take a sentence to congratulate him and his lady, as well as make sure that everyone who reads his articles is aware that he's now a daddy.  Not THE daddy, but A daddy.